If one war ends, another starts
by Volksbrot
Summary: The war against the Reaper has been won. But the galaxy we live in will never be peaceful. The emerging war might be even deadlier as the Reaper War because many race are severely weakened from the previous one. The fate of the galaxy may now depend on the actions of only a few people.
1. Chapter 1

**05.01.2187, 09:58, Illium**

The two persons lay cuddled up together on the bed in her apartment in Nos Astra. Illium wasn't hit as hard as Thessia or Earth by the Reaper so in the months after the war many people from all races who could afford it went to Illium to seek peace and stay away from the destroyed planets once called their homes. If someone would have seen the couple through the windows – which was impossible, because the windows were in fact one-way mirrors – it would be a surprising sight. The person would see that both of them had instead of her arms and legs prostheses built of metal which functioned like normal body parts. None of the persons lying on the bed cared about this; they behaved like a normal couple spending the night together. Some minutes later the male woke up, kissed the female gently on her cheek and stood up. He then walked into the kitchen and prepared breakfast for the both of them and took it back to the bed where his girlfriend woke up. "Breakfast in the bed? I love you.", she said. "I love you too.", he answered and kissed her. "Life's been good the last months." "You could say that.", she grinned. After the war against the Reaper they moved to Illium and were basically just relaxing. They thought they deserved some R&R after the war. "But I know both of us aren't made for just lying around and relaxing.", he said. "We need to do something or we're going nuts here." "That's true.", she answered. "So what're you up to? I guess you've got an idea in your mind." "Kind of. I still have a few friends in the Alliance." "Joining the Alliance, huh?" "Yeah. It isn't going to be easy with our past but at least we left Cerberus before the Illusive Man allied himself with the Reaper. And during the war we attacked Cerberus where we could. That should count for something." "True thing. So how do you want to get back into the Alliance?" He was surprised that she agreed so fast with his idea. "What, are you surprised?", she asked. "We'll go nuts if we spend more time here. It was nice, don't get me wrong, I loved it, but we aren't made for this."

 **26.02.2187, 15:12, Earth**

They both sat in a small waiting room waiting to speak with an Alliance Officer about rejoining the Alliance. Despite the effort of a friend of him in the Alliance they had to speak with an Officer which tested all people who wanted to join the Alliance but came from organizations like Cerberus. Some minutes later they were told to enter the room where the Officer sat they were supposed to talk to. It was a young man, probably around the age of 27. He was obviously bored by his job. "Sit down please.", he told them. "Your names?" "Jonathan Dunn." "Aliana Wyler." He was looking at his computer. "So, you both served the Alliance for some time and … Wait a moment. This can't be true." "He straightened on his chair. "My information says that you both died on Elysium. So either you're too are lying or this information is wrong. "We're not lying. The short form is that Cerberus saved us and we then worked for them. When the Reaper attacked Earth we saw the madness of the Illusive Man and left. We then attacked Cerberus on several occasions and helped defend some colonies against the Reaper. The long form is here." He gave the officer a PDA.

Half an hour later they stood in the office of Admiral Hackett. "You two are an interesting case.", the highest Officer in the Alliance spoke. "Nearly died at Elysium, saved by Cerberus and then worked for them. Left them a few years later when the Illusive Man allied himself with the Reaper. Fought against Cerberus and the Reaper and helped the Alliance in several cases. You both completed the N-School as N7. Highly recommended by your officers. You're reminding me of Shepard.", he said with a chuckle. And now you want to rejoin the Alliance. Although most of your actions working for Cerberus were against the Batarians some of them were against the Asari and the Turians, against our allies. That you've left Cerberus and fought against them counts for you but I don't know if I can trust you entirely. So you have to do something to gain my trust and rejoin the Alliance. We have reports from some leftover Cerberus troops on Bekenstein. "Bekenstein? Wasn't it destroyed during the war against the Reaper?", Aliana asked. "Yes it was. We don't know what Cerberus wants do there but I don't think they want to help rebuild our colony. So it's your job to find out what they're doing there, eliminate them and report back. I don't think that should be a problem for you, considering your outstanding abilities you've proven while serving for the Alliance." "We're on it, Sir.", Jonny and Aliana said and saluted.

 **04.03.2187, 19:36, Orbit of Bekenstein**

"I'm going to land somewhere near the position Hackett gave us. It should be out of range of their sensors. Don't want their attention.", Jonny said to Aliana. The spaceship they were travelling with was engineered by Cerberus a few years ago. It suited perfectly to their kind of missions. Like the SSV Normandy it was equipped with a stealth device. The main difference between the Normandy and the Avalanche (the name of their ship) was that the Avalanche wasn't a frigate but just a small spaceship, about 30 meters long, eleven meters wide and 4 meters high. It was lightly armed and had strong shields but the main purpose of this ship was to get its crew unnoticed wherever they went. When they left Cerberus they stole the ship. Since then it helped them a lot on their missions. To support them they had an A.I. installed they called Argus. Additional to that they had two human-sized robots which worked mainly at the reactor when needed and four small drones which could detect damage on the hull and repair lesser damage given the materials.

 **One hour later**

After landing the ship they send out three small scouting drones to scout the area the Cerberus forces were suspected to hide. Not much later they had found the position of the Cerberus troops. They hid in a factory building that wasn't destroyed as much as the majority of the buildings on Bekenstein. Besides the fifteen Cerberus Troopers there were four Krogans. "What are the Krogans doing here? Cerberus usually doesn't work with Non-Humans.", Aliana asked. "Maybe some mercenaries but I don't know. They aren't attacking Cerberus so they're our enemies. I hope we'll find out more about this unusual alliance. Let's try to let one of the Cerberus guys alive so we can interrogate him."

A few minutes later they had shut off most of the security systems from Cerberus and slipped unnoticed through the main entrance of the building. "The main room with the computer containing the data we want should be only a few doors further.", Aliana said as they sneaked around a corner into corridor. One second later they heard footsteps and immediately went back behind the corner. When the two patrolling Cerberus passed the corner where they were hiding Jonny activated his Omni-Blade and stabbed the first Cerberus trooper right in his face through the helmet that couldn't protect the wearer from the Omni-Blade. Almost in the same moment Aliana jumped about the corner and kicked the second Cerberus trooper in the crotch. As he felt onto his knees she broke his neck. They dragged the corpses around the corner so they wouldn't be found so easily. "Activating thermal scanners.", Aliana whispered. She now could see the positions of the remaining enemies on her Kuwashii Visor. The image was transferred to Jonny's Visor as well. She saw three more patrols consisting of each two Cerberus Troopers. One of them was headed to their position; the other two were patrolling the rest of the building. The remaining seven Cerberus Troopers and the four Krogans were all in the biggest room about 20 meters along the corridor. "Let's kill the three patrols first and then try to lure some of them out of this room. I don't want to face them straight on. Could be nasty with these Krogans.", Jonny whispered back. "But it would be fun.", Aliana answered with a smile on her face. "Not this time. Let's try to show Hackett how by-the-book we can go through this mission."

Eight minutes later they had eliminated all the three patrols silently without getting noticed. After preparing an ambush with a few grenades Jonny took the radio of one of the Troopers. "Encountered several enemies at the western entrance. Need help!", he said into the radio hoping they would believe him. "Understood. Patrols one, two and four support them!", he heard the typical deep voice of a Cerberus Centurion. "Patrols one, two and four? Respond! Fuck! You six, go support them!", he said probably to the other Cerberus Troopers. About half a minute later they heard the heavy footsteps of the approaching Cerberus Troopers. Both Aliana and Jonny waited with drawn N7 Valkyries. Because of the high accuracy and the good damage these weapons were very popular on the black market. In the right hands they were death bringing machines. As the first Cerberus Trooper ran into their trap several grenades placed in the corridor exploded. Two Troopers were immediately dead and one received severely wounds, making it impossible to fight for him anymore. The remaining three Cerberus Troopers were totally surprised and were killed by several shots from both Aliana and Jonny. Their little ambush had worked perfectly. After making sure none of the Troopers were alive they went to the room where the Cerberus Centurion and the four Krogans were hiding. Aliana broke through the door and in the same moment she and Jonny threw two grenades in the room. Before they exploded they went quickly behind the wall to be not in the blast radius of the grenades. After hearing the explosions they stormed the room and saw that the Cerberus Centurion and one of the Krogans were lying dead on the ground. Another Krogan lied hurt in one of the corners. There were only two Krogans remaining. While one of them did something for Krogans not so typical – he dived into cover and began firing with his shotgun at Aliana who went as well behind cover and started firing back – the other Krogan did what you would expect a Krogan would do in this kind of situation: He charged right at Jonny. Despite the fact that he could move faster than any normal human with his augmented legs he wasn't fast enough to completely dodge the charging Krogan Battlemaster. The Krogan caught Jonny at his thigh and rammed him at the wall behind him. If it wasn't for his advanced armor protecting him the Krogan would have surely broke his spine. But because of this he received only several bruises on his back and chest. Before the Krogan could ram his fists into the human who was surprised that he survived the charge Jonny caught the two fists flying towards him with his own hands before they could reach his face and due to the immense power of his augmented body parts he pushed them back and crushed the bones in them. The Krogan yelled in pain and surprise. Before he could do anything to defend himself an insanely fast moving Omni-Blade cut through his throat and killed him. While the yellow blood of the Krogan splashed against his armor Jonny grabbed his sidearm – a M5 Phalanx – and shot the last Krogan who still was behind his cover firing at Aliana two times in the head. "You okay?", he asked her breathing heavily from his fight with the Krogan Battlemaster. "Yes. This Bastard dropped half of my shield but nothing serious. You?", she asked back. "Got a couple bruises but nothing serious I think. Now look at this Computer if there are any data we could use. I check the bodies if they're all dead. I hope there's a survivor we can interrogate." "That would be good.", Aliana answered before checking the computer at any important data. Meanwhile Jonny found the fourth Krogan who was hurt by the grenade but not killed. After completely disarming him (he was surprised how many weapons the Krogan was carrying: one large shotgun which could easily rip a man apart if hid directly, one heavy pistol he hadn't seen before, probably some model used by pirates and batarian slavers, two rather large knives and one ancient looking mace) he punched the Krogan lightly in the face. "Still living, Krogan?", he asked with an authoritarian voice. The Krogan only mumbled some not understandable words. Jonny took that as a yes. "Why do you work with Cerberus? What were your plans here?", he continued to ask the Krogan. This time he answered, but barely understandable. Obviously he was hurt pretty hard. "We … will take our … vengeance human. You will all … die.", were the last words of the Krogan before he died. "Now that didn't sound very nice.", Jonny said with a slightly upset and ironic voice to the dead Krogan.

 _Why Vengeance? What reason the Krogans have for vengeance against the humans? A human healed the genophage so I don't see why they want vengeance._

"Found anything?", he asked Aliana. "They were looking after something here on Bekenstein. Something to heal … the genophage? What the fuck? I thought Shepard healed the genophage back on Tuchanka.", she answered with a confused look on her face. "Strange … One of the Krogans was still alive so I tried to find out what they're doing here and the only answer I've got was something with vengeance and that we all will die." "Not the kind of thing you want to hear all day.", Aliana said with a smile at her face. "Definitely not.", Jonny said grinning back at her. "But let's get back to the ship and report back to Hackett. He should be interested in this as well as we are."

 **Three hours later**

After leaving Bekenstein, setting course back to Earth and cleaning themselves and their armor from the dirt and blood of the battle they activated the QEC of their ship and contacted Admiral Hackett. "Sir.", they both greeted him. "I assume you pulled the mission off?", he asked. "Yes, Sir. Sending the report now. But we detected something interesting. Four Krogans supported Cerberus. They searched after something to heal the Genophage although she was cured and one of the Krogans said something about Vengeance before he died.", Jonny informed Hackett. "That doesn't sound very good. Cerberus never has done something without a plan behind it. I'm expecting you in two days at my office. You've handled this mission well and earned some R&R. Hackett out."

After the conversation with the two former Alliance Soldiers and Cerberus Agents he read the mission report and still had no clue what Cerberus wanted. He decided to ask the man who probably knew most about curing the genophage besides Mordin Solus. The man that had saved the entire galaxy and nearly died but survived and was found in the debris of the Citadel. John Shepard, now Rear Admiral and commanding officer of the Third Fleet of the Alliance. He replaced Admiral Singh who died sacrificing his ship to protect the Crucible at the Battle of Earth.

John Shepard spend the last days together with his love, Tali'Zorah in an apartment located somewhere in Florida. He could leave the Hospital a week earlier after he was saved from the debris of the Citadel and spend a long time in the best available Hospital on Earth in which his body fully healed. He thought about what happened to him after the war when he was lying on his bed and enjoying the beautiful landscape. He was now Read Admiral and commanded the Third Fleet. He had to give up his command of the Normandy and hated it every moment but he knew also that he would help the galaxy at this moment more if he commanded the Third Fleet. In addition he knew that the Normandy was in good hands, his former Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, now promoted to Captain commanded the Normandy. His thoughts were disrupted then the V.I. of his house told him that Hackett stand in front of his door.

 _What in hell is Hackett doing here? He could have contacted me in nearly a dozen other ways._

He put on his clothes without waking up Tali who was still catching up the sleep they had missed in the night by virtue of other activities. He went to the door and opened it. "Admiral Hackett, I didn't expect you. You could have contacted me on a dozen other ways." "I am sorry to interrupt the little time you have but this is important, Shepard. I wanted to meet you in privacy because I don't want that someone monitored this conversation.", he said to Shepard who was still a little bit tired and entered the apartment. "What's going on?, Shepard asked having no clue about what Hackett wanted to tell him. About four hours ago two agents reported back who were on a mission on Bekenstein finding out what some Cerberus Troops were doing there." "Bekenstein? What was Cerberus doing there?", Shepard asked. The two Agents said they were searching something to cure the Genophage. As unlikely as it sounds, it's true.", the old Admiral answered as he saw that Shepard immediately stopped. "Fuck.", he only said. "What's going on Shepard?", Hackett asked, now being the person who didn't know what the other one was talking about. "I thought the Salarians had covered it." "Covered what?", Hackett asked again. "It seems like I have to tell something …", Shepard said to Hackett. "Have you ever wondered about the fact that in Salarians fought side to side to Krogans, Admiral? The short form is, before we launched the mission on Tuchanka to cure the genophage the salarian Councilor called me and made an offer. An offer I couldn't resist. She said only if I would sabotage the cure the Salarians would support us. I agreed. After releasing the sabotaged cure the Krogans believed the genophage was cured. In the end we got both the Salarians and the Krogans. Not healing the genophage gave us the support we needed. If I hadn't sabotaged the cure many more would have died and we maybe had loosed the war. The Salarians assured me that the Krogans would figure it out in a couple of years and they had plans to tell the Krogans that the genophage couldn't be cured and so on. I didn't think they would figure it out so fast." For a short time both men said nothing. Hackett wasn't entirely sure if he could believe it. He called the curing of the genophage a miracle to find out only some months later that it was a huge lie. But he understood Shepard. He understood that he did it to save the galaxy. He sacrificed the future of one race to safe the future of an entire galaxy. He couldn't imagine how hard this decision must have been. He respected Shepard for making such a difficult choice. "It was the right choice.", Hackett said, breaking the silence. "Are you sure about that?", Shepard asked. He wasn't sure if he heard right. "Yes. We both know that. We have to warn the other races. We must face the option of another Krogan Rebellion. But it hasn't started yes. If we act quickly we might prevent another war."

That was the first chapter of my new series. I hope you enjoyed it. Please note that english is NOT my mothertongue so it isn't the easiest for me to write. I would be happy if you could say if my english is terrible like hell or if it is quite okay. Until next time.


	2. Lost things return and new will be found

**09.03.2187, 12:46, Anhur**

It rained.

 _Perfect mood for a funeral._

A few meters before her the coffins containing her parents were lowered into the earth.

 _What an irony. Surviving the Reaper War but dying a few months later by a fire because someone didn't watch out._

She never really shared a bond with her parents. Both were strictly religious and raised her and her brother like that. That was probably the reason why she wasn't really sad about the death of both their parents. Her childhood was terrible. A soon as possible she and her older brother left their parents. While her brother run away at the age of 16 and joined the marines – he faked his age he explained to her in a message he send to her – she endured it in her parental home until her 18th birthday. She then moved as far away as she could and became a scientist working for the Alliance as well. Many times she tried to find her brother via several contacts in the military but never get anything out of the research. Sometimes she wondered if her search was blocked by someone because officially her brother never joined the military she but never found any evidence for that. After some time she thought that her brother possibly joined the Special Forces. That would explain why she never found any trace of him. But with time she thought that her brother was dead. With her parents dead as well she now was the only one left in her family. There were not many people on the funeral, mainly some friends of her parents. She didn't care about them and come only to the funeral to get a proof that she was finally free from her parents in any way. Some meters behind the crowd gathered before the grave two people were standing she never saw before. One of them was male, the other female. Both of them were wearing black coats and gloves. This surprised her because the weather wasn't really warm but neither it was so cold that it was necessary to wear gloves. She knew none of them. They clearly had any connection to her parents because they were at the funeral but didn't want to join the others. She wasn't eager to find out who these two were. The only thing she wanted was to take a cab back to her hotel. She didn't live on Eden Prime so she had rent a room in a local hotel to stay for the night. Tomorrow she would book a seat in a ship getting her to her home.

 **Some time later**

As she walked away from the others to call a cab she was greeted by one of the two strangers she saw earlier. "It seems like we didn't seen us quite some time." the male said. "Excuse me, but do I know you?", she asked the person. "Oh, I hope you haven't forgotten entirely about me, Becca. Or should I say little sister?", he said with a grin on his face. She was totally confused. "Jonny?" she asked wondering if this could be her older brother. Could it be him? Could it be the only person which really meaned something to her? She never really cared about her family except her brother who was two years older than her. In her childhood the only friends they had were each other. Sure, she had some friends from her work but never really considered them more as just partners. "Exactly little sis." "I thought you were dead!", she cried. "Look, my job involved a certain level of secrecy so I never really could send you a message or something like that." he said while hugging her. "But this has changed. A little bit at least. I am here and I live. But now let us please leave this place. I'm sure you hate this people buried there as much as I do. Now come on. "Okay." , she sniffled still overwhelmed by the return of her brother. "I'll call a cab to my hotel." She now said with a much more normal voice than before. "That isn't necessary. I'm sure the place there we stay is more suited to us." the women her brother was accompanied by said. "I'm Aliana by the way. His girlfriend." she said with a blink in her eye. "Rebecca.", she said while shaking Aliana's hand.

"And why is your place more suited to us again?" she asked her brother who was flying their cab to New Thebes, the capital of Eden Prime. "As I said, my, well, our job,", he pointed at Aliana, "involved a certain level of secrecy. So it wouldn't be the best to talk about that in a rather unsecure place like yours. You'll see soon enough. We didn't just come here for a little conversation – which we'll do nonetheless – but to offer you a new job." "A job? What kind of a job?" "I'm afraid that we can't talk about that until we're at our place. But we're nearly there so you don't have to wait long sis."

The place there they went was impressive. In the center of New Thebes there were several skyscrapers and they were headed to the largest of them. They landed on a small landing platform in about 200 meters above ground which led to an apartment. "A beer?", Aliana asked as she walked to the fridge. "Yeah, thanks. I feel like I'm gonna need one. Nice place by the way. Must've been expensive." Rebecca said looking around in the apartment. "To be honest, we didn't pay a single credit for it. There are some advantages working for the government." Jonny grinned. "But, let's come to the part where I explain what I've been doing since the last time we saw each other. At least parts of that, I can't tell you everything, I'm sorry. But I think most of the important stuff I can tell you." "I hope so." "Please, take a place." he said while opening a beer. "As you already know, at the age of 16 I left our home and joined the military with faked documents. Obviously I was good at doing my job as marine so my officer recommended me for the N School. Some years and a lot of brutal training later I was N7. That was before the time the Batarians were raiding Elysium. We both fought their and nearly died. Just nearly because Cerberus found us and took care of us. After that we joined them. The Alliance was doing not enough against the bloody Batarians and Cerberus saved us. We had to repay them in some way." "You were with Cerberus? They are terrorists!" "Back in those days they weren't that bad. Believe me. 2185 they fought the Collectors while the Alliance wasn't doing anything. And you wouldn't call Shepard a terrorist, wouldn't you? He worked for them as well." "He left them right after he destroyed the Collectors and fought later against Cerberus. You're comparing yourself with Shepard?" Rebecca asked. "You haven't heard the whole story. As I said, they weren't that bad back then." "That's true." Aliana said. "They defended human Colonies against the Collectors later on and stood for a strong humanity. None of this we're-sticking-Reapertech-in-our-brains-Bullshit the Illusive Man did later. "So, Cerberus saved us from Elysium. Without them we would be dead. In exchange we worked for them. For a few years this worked well until the Illusive Man turned crazy and started working for the Reaper. At the time Earth was attacked we should go to the prothean archives on Mars to gather some data. Attacking the Alliance when they were attacked by the Reaper? That was Bullshit. We left Cerberus and stole on the way some important data which we sent to the Alliance. During the war against the Reaper we attacked Cerberus where we could. I bet the Illusive Man didn't like that. After the war was won we decided to try to get back to the Alliance. That was rather tricky because we both were Agents of Cerberus for quite a few years and the image of Cerberus isn't that good as you should know." "Not really." "Well, somehow it worked." "So you're with Alliance again?" Rebecca asked. "Yep. And this leads us to the other reason we've come to you." Aliana said. "You worked for the Alliance as a scientist for several years. You've done a good job. But some people think that you can do better. Way better. So we're supposed to convince you to become part of the Alliance and work on a secret project." "Another secrecy?" "This project is very important and could deal a lot of damage if it would get into the wrong hands." Jonny explained. "So you have to accept first until you'll learn more about it. Of course your new job will come alongside with better payment. If you accept, contact this man." He opened a file on his PDA and gave it to his sister. But enough talking about jobs and such serious stuff, we haven't seen us in years Becca! Let's have some fun until we both have to go!" "I warn you, his "fun" often comes along with some alcohol.", said Aliana grinning. "I can work with that.", Rebecca grinned back happy about the reunion with her brother.

 **10.03.2187, 02:34, SSV Avalanche**

While their A.I. Argus controlled the ship both Jonny and Aliana caught up the sleep they missed during the last hours because they celebrated the reunion of Jonny and Rebecca. The ships' target was located somewhere in the Maroon Sea. They were ordered there by Admiral Hackett to meet other Specialists to form a team. The mission of this team was to operate against the remains of Cerberus and find out more about their plans especially in relation to their cooperation with the Krogans. They did not know exactly who these Specialists would be but they had a certain guess.

 **11.03.2187, 09:31, Alliance Shuttle headed to an unknown location**

Not long after Rebecca contacted the man she should contact she got a message back. She should pack the stuff she needed and go to the spaceport of Anhur. A shuttle would wait for her there. She had no clue where the shuttle would be heading and was a little nervous about it. The lack of other information were a bit concerning. After she arrived at the spaceport which was still not rebuilt entirely she was greeted by two Alliance Marines who led her to a small Shuttle standing on a small landing platform guarded by three other marines. The Shuttle quickly took off after she entered. Apart from her there were four persons on board: The pilot and his copilot and the two marines that led her to the shuttle. When she asked one of them where the shuttle was heading the only answer she got was that she would find it out later. She tried to fell asleep soon after they started but couldn't. The noises from the machines were too loud and the presence of the two marines didn't make it easier.

After about three hours the shuttle jumped into a system where the SSV Amsterdam, an Alliance Cruiser was waiting. The Shuttle entered the hangar of the larger ship and Rebecca could step out of the shuttle. 30 seconds after she walked from the shuttle into the hangar of the Amsterdam the shuttle took off and left the hangar. Left alone in the Hangar with several engineers working on some fighters a woman in the blue Alliance uniform walked to her and greeted her: "Sae yoo're Rebecca Dunn ah guess?" Rebecca was quite surprised about the accent. Only very few people had such a strong accent in this time. The fact that she could barely understand her wasn't making Rebecca less nervous. "Um … Yeah." she answered. "Stoatin! I'll tak' ye tae yer cabin an' 'en yoo'll see th' other passengers!" she said to her while walking to a lift leading away from the hangar. "Mah nam is Alison Camdyn by th' way." "Nice to meet you. My name you already know." she said grinning. "Ah dae, aye." Actually Rebecca liked the directness of her. She still couldn't understand every word but most of them. After a few minutes they reached her cabin. It wasn't big but all that she needed was in there. A bed, a small desk and a chair. On the wall above the desk was hanging a small picture showing some green landscape with a few hills. A door led to a second room with a loo and a small shower. "These rooms ur normally reserved fur th' officers but fur thes trip th' scientists bide haur." She heard the Alliance soldier with the Scottish accent saying. "Noo please follaw me. I'll tak' ye tea th' other scientists. She put her bag on the bed and followed the soldier. They walked down a corridor and ended in a larger room with some people sitting there. Four of them were humans and five Quarians. Since the Quarians reconquered Rannoch from the Geth witch the help of Commander Shepard the two species were close allies. They both helped immensely each other in the rebuilt after the war. The new human Councilor requested a seat for the Quarians for their support and help against the Reaper after the war as well. While many Humans and some Aliens supported this request the majority of the Council was against it. The Turians and Asari said that only because they had their homeworld back they still would be beggars and thieves. The Salarians were keeping themselves out of the discussion. The denial of a seat in the Council for the Quarians only strengthened the Alliance between Humanity and the Quarians. Some citizens even demanded that Humanity should leave the Council and form a new Council with the Quarians and other races to oppose the Council. "Ah, there is the last one." said one of the Quarians, a male one. "So you're the other scientists?" Rebecca asked while sitting down on the last free chair. "Yes we are." answered a female Human with short blond hair. "And does one of you know why we are here?" "That is a question I can answer." she heard a voice saying. She turned around to see who the newcomer was and saw Admiral Hackett entering the room. Although none of the scientists were part of the military (some of them worked for the military, but not in the military) all of them straightened up in their seats when Hackett entered the room. "Ladies and Gentlemen, you are here because you are the smartest scientists of your races. You may think that war is over. You may think that we are in peace. But that isn't true. War is coming. And your job it is to win this war." "Excuse me, but from what war are you talking, Admiral?" asked one of the human scientists. "What I will tell you must not leave this room. It is very important that this project remains secret to the galaxy. If you tell someone else who isn't in this room about this project we'll know about it and the consequences for you will be harsh. Everybody got it?" he asked. All of them nodded, some of the more nervously than others. "Alright. You all surely think that the genophage has been cured. The reality is, it wasn't."

 _What? The genophage had not been cured? One of the greatest scientific successes of the last years was a lie?_

The other scientists were equally surprised and were talking quietly to each other about the news. "This lie was necessary to win the Reaper War. If we had cured the genophage the Salarians never would have supported us. We sabotaged the cure so the Krogans believed it worked. In the end we got the support of the Krogans and Salarians." "Excuse me Sir, but why aren't the Salarians here? I mean, the war you spoke from will obviously be against the Salarians if the Krogans find out that the cure was faked. They have some of the most brilliant scientists of the galaxy. So why aren't they here? "Good question, Mister Krukanoff. They aren't here because this project has to remain secret. The Salarians have very tight bindings to the Council. The Quarians aren't even members of the Citadel races." Hackett answered. "Humanity has a seat in the Council." A female Quarian said. "That is true. But Humanity was never seen equal in the eyes of the rest of the Council. Besides if we hadn't found what we found this project wouldn't even exist." "So what is this project you're talking about all the time?" Rebecca asked. "Thank you for asking, Miss Dunn." Hackett answered. "A few days ago we found remains of an old species on Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn. We first believed they were prothean but they don't have any similarities to prothean ruins we found before. At the moment we're assuming we found the remains of a new species. A species that lived before the Protheans. Your job it is to find out more about their technology and how we can use it. This cruiser is flying to Titan. We'll arrive in approximately two days."

 **14.03.2187, 15:27, Titan, Carter Camp**

She still couldn't believe it entirely. They found the remains of a species older than the Protheans. Even they were stuff of mystical legends and fairytales but a species even older than the Protheans? While she was excited about finding out more about this new old species she also hated it. All the things they would learn about this ancient species would be used in the first hand for one purpose: war. She understood it that it was necessary but still hated it.

 _Why has there always war to be? We survived the Reaper and even defeated them. The Reaper! But instead of having a period of piece we rather would go to war. What a sick galaxy._

After arriving at Carter Camp named after Howard Carte who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun the Scientists were shown around at the camp. It contained several different chambers where they could examine that they found in the ruins. These chambers were all built that none harmful substance they might found could escape these chambers. The station was already inhabited by the three archaeologists who discovered the ruins. None of the eight human and quarian scientists were archaeologists. They should examine the technology they found and if was better than the technology they used try to reproduce it. Until now they had found nothing of interest but they only examined a small part of the ruins and scans showed that the ruins were even larger than assumed at the beginning. They had a huge amount of work to do but they all were sure it would be worth it later on.

 **16.03.2187, 22:54, unknown location**

She wasn't really happy about the events on Bekenstein. The entire team got killed and there was a possibility that whoever attacked the team now knew about their plans. If they found out after what the team was searching they could easily think what their ultimate goal was. The only hope she had was that they probably would give this information to the council. The Asari and Turians would in their arrogance and ignorance never believe that it would come to war. They would dismiss the information. She should deploy agents in the near of the Council to find out what they would be doing she thought. She didn't believe that the Council would act different than she thought but she better thought about all possible ways the events could go. After informing three agents about their new assignment she turned around to her chessboard and moved a figure one place further. Like her father she loved playing chess.

 **So that was the second chapter. Hope you guys liked it. Sorry for the scottish accent but I hope you could were able to understand it ;)**

 **Until next time**


	3. Old friends

**03/12/2187, 10:24, Titan**

They walked through a large hall. It was about 80 meters high and about 40 meters wide. Large pillars were built to support the ceiling which tapered in her mid. All was built with black stone and ornamented with golden symbols. On the walls were pictures from humanoid beings fighting against each other. The farther they went into the hall the humanoid beings stopped fighting each other. They were fighting huge machines that looked like the Reaper.  
Admiring that they saw they walked through the hall. The group consisted of the eight human and quarian scientists, the three human archaeologists and some Alliance Marines. The Marines were a protection measure which was dictated by Alliance protocols for encountering foreign species: Assume hostility. For a few minutes they walked through the hall without even seeing an end of it. The beams of their lamps cut through the darkness dominating the large room. Rebecca wondered what the purpose of this hall was.

 _Was it used for some religious stuff? Or just a throne room representing the might of their ruler? The archaeologists shall find that out. I'm just here to learn something about their technology. If we find something of that here. Not sure if we will._

The enthusiasm they all had at first of exploring these ruins of a pre-prothean species soon ended when they were exploring and exploring without finding anything useful. After minutes of walking through this hall one of them suddenly broke the silence.  
"I think I found something." he said. "Maybe the end of this hall. Looks like a door."  
The others quickly walked to him to see what he found. It seemed like he found the end of the hall.

 _Finally._

The door was built in the same style everything else was built they saw. The base material was some kind of black stone with golden ornaments on it. They were all happy that they finally found the end of the hall. The only thing they weren't happy about was that the door was closed and there were no buttons around the door that possibly could open it. However there was an area on the door about the size of a human hand.  
"Maybe someone has to put his hand against it to open the door?" one of the Quarians suggested and put his hand against the highlighted area on the door.  
Nothing happened.  
"Or not." he said.  
Suddenly Rebecca heard a voice saying: "Put your hand against it."  
It was a deep voice, sounding old and dominant. She wondered who said it. It sounded somewhat strange. Like the voice only appeared in her mind. She looked around but none of the others apparently heard it too.

 _Am I crazy now? Do I hear voices out of nowhere? What is happening?_

"Do it." she heard the same voice saying again.

She was in some kind of trance as she walked to the door and put her right hand against it like the Quarian did it before her.  
"What are you doing?" one of the scientists asked. "It obviously didn't work so why are you trying it again?"  
She didn't notice that the other scientist said something. Suddenly the door opened. All of them only stared at her. Without hesitation she walked through the door when it was completely open. Before one of the other scientists could follow Rebecca the door closed again.  
"What the …" one of the soldiers mumbled.  
"Maybe it works only for humans." a female scientist suggested.  
She put her hand against the area but nothing happened. On the other side of the door Rebecca walked through a corridor without knowing what she was doing. She passed several doors similar to the one she opened and stopped finally at one slightly bigger than all the others.  
Again she put her right hand against it like she did with the first door. The door opened and she entered a largely empty room with only a console in the middle of the room and a small elevation behind it. On the walls were pictures of fights like in the hall they went through earlier. She walked to the console and activated it. After a second a lamp on the ceiling was activated. Simultaneously several lights in the hall where the rest of the group still wondered about what happened went on. Suddenly a hologram in the room where Rebecca activated the console appeared on the small elevation. It showed a human wearing a black ancient looking armor. All of a sudden Rebecca collapsed on the console.  
A few seconds later she stood up and realized that she was no longer in the great hall with the others.  
"What? Where am I?" she screamed. The last thing she could remember was to hear a voice telling her to put her hand onto that door. "Calm down, child." the same voice said. The only difference was that now the voice didn't sound like it only was in her head. As she looked around she saw the hologram before her.

 _Why does he look like a human? The ruins we found were over 200,000 years old!_

"Who are you?" she asked.  
"I am an A.I. created by the original Humanity." the hologram said.  
"WHAT? Original Humanity? What are you talking about?"  
"250,000 years ago humanity emerged. Not from the planet you call Earth but from another planet in this galaxy. Like all races before we were attacked by the Reapers and finally were defeated. Although at the time of our extinction our technology was independent from Element Zero we were destroyed by the Reaper.  
But we had plans to preserve Humanity from extinction. We send hundreds of our race without any technology to the planet you call Earth so the Reaper couldn't trace them. Apparently our plans worked so far. My purpose is to help Humanity in all of its problems."

Rebecca was overwhelmed. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. As she thought a second about it she remembered Biology in school. Homo sapiens emerged about 200,000 years ago. The same time the original Humanity as the A.I. called it send some human individuals to the earth so the Reaper couldn't extinct all of Humanity.

 _Could it be true?_

"Why could I open the door but the Quarian not?" she asked the A.I..  
"The mechanism to open door only works for humans. But when you opened that door the scanners detected something very interesting … They detected that you are a descendant from the ancient family of Vorn. The ancient house of Vorn ruled Humanity for thousands of years. How can I serve you my Lady?"  
Rebecca had difficulties to believe what she was hearing earlier about the original Humanity. But now? It couldn't be compared.  
"Uhm … I'm definitely not the ruler of Humanity." she said. "I don't even want to rule Humanity. Besides that wouldn't be possible today. Normally we elect a president. But during the Reaper War the leader of our military led Humanity."  
"Reaper War? So the Reaper already invaded the galaxy?" the A.I. asked with a dubiously voice.  
"They did. But we defeated them with the Crucible." Rebecca answered.  
"So the Crucible was finally completed … We tried to build it too but indoctrinated traitors delayed its construction."  
He made a pause.  
"You said that you don't want to rule Humanity and that it wouldn't be even possible … That is a shame. The members of the Vorn family were always good rulers. Nevertheless I will serve you as my programming commands it. How can I serve you, my Lady?"  
Rebecca thought about it for a few seconds.  
Then she said: "We destroyed the Reapers but it was a pyrrhic victory. Millions died. Treacherous organizations are about to start a war that could destroy Humanity. When we discovered these remnants we hoped to find hints of technologies that are better than ours. You said that your technology was not based on Element Zero. Tell me about that."

 **03/12/2187, 17:45, Maroon Sea**

When they entered the System their scanners quickly found the signal of the ship they were headed for. About 20 minutes later the Avalanche arrived at the position where the other ship was waiting for them. It was an Alliance frigate, the second with its name. The first ship with this name was destroyed in 2183 by the Collectors. When the two ships were side by side a docking tube extended from the frigate and connected both ships. Jonny and Aliana let Argus take over the controls and walked through the docking tube. As they entered the other ship they were greeted by the Executive Officer, a person they knew. Not from the days in the Alliance but from the days they worked for Cerberus.  
"You?" asked a surprised Miranda as they entered the Normandy.  
"Yes, we." answered Jonny. "Seems like we're not the only former Cerberus agents here."  
"I didn't expect two of the best Cerberus agents."  
"I don't think I've seen you ever surprised before." Aliana grinned.  
"I'm not perfect." Miranda mumbled.  
Together the three former Cerberus agents walked to the War Room while talking about their time working for Cerberus. In the War Room there were ten other persons waiting: five humans, one Quarian, one Turian, one Asari, one Salarian and one A.I..  
"So who do you think these Specialists we're waiting for are?" James asked.  
"I don't know." Liara answered.  
"What? You're the Shadow Broker! You have to know something." Tali said in a surprised tone.  
"Well I know something about what they did during the Reaper War but not who they are."  
"And what do you know about that they did during the war? Garrus wanted to know.  
"They helped defending some Colonies against the Reapers and attacked Cerberus several times. They also helped the Alliance on a few occasions." Liara answered being obviously not happy about the fact that she knew not very much about them.  
"And do you know anything about them, Shep? Kasumi asked Shepard. "Hackett must have given you some information about them when he assigned you to this mission."  
"He didn't." Shepard answered.  
Silence dominated the room again while everyone thought who these two persons could be. A few seconds later the door opened and Miranda, followed by two persons entered the War Room. It was a male and a female. The male one was about 6'2 tall, had a beard and a bald head. He had a scar running over his left eye. The female was about 5'9 tall and had red hair and green eyes. They both wore black coats and surprisingly gloves. Shepard wondered why they did that. It wasn't really cold in here.  
"So you are the two Specialists we were waiting for?" he asked.  
"That we are." Jonny answered.  
"I'm sorry for asking, but Hackett didn't give me any information about you two, so who are you?"  
"Jonathan Dunn. Call me Jonny if you want." "Aliana Wyler." they both answered. "I don't really have to ask who you are." Jonny said grinning.  
"Why are you wearing gloves? It isn't really cold in here." James asked. "Just wondering." he said when he got some looks from Miranda who was obviously a little bit annoyed of his lack of manners.  
"Because of this." Jonny said and removed his right glove. Instead of a normal human hand they saw a hand built of metal that moved like a normal hand.  
"Interesting." said Mordin breaking the silence. Not many organizations could construct something like that. Who built that?"  
"Could we please talk about the mission and not about the two of us?" Aliana said sounding a little bit annoyed.  
"Certainly a good idea." Liara said trying to smooth the situation.  
"Alright. We all know that our two friends here discovered on Bekenstein. Cerberus wants to heal the genophage. If they do that they will have the full support of all Krogans. That would result in something we don't want. Cerberus never acts without a plan behind it. Our mission is to find out more about their plan. After the battle at Cronos Station Cerberus was severely weakened so it can't operate in the Council controlled areas. However they can easily operate in the Terminus Systems. This is why I want to ask Aria if she knows something about it. I helped her reconquering Omega so I hope that counts for something. Also she hates Cerberus as much as we do for conquering her station. That will be our first mission."

 **03/14/2187, 18:04, Omega**

They didn't want to get everyone's attention so not all of them entered Omega. Shepard, Garrus and James were headed to the Afterlife. Jack, Miranda, Jonny and Aliana were all somewhere near the Afterlife in case something happened. The rest waited on the Normandy. EDI and Liara searched after traces of possible Cerberus agents.  
While pretending to be interested in buying some weapon modifications Jonny heard the conversation between Shepard and Aria over radio. "Seems like everything is rebuilt." he heard Shepard saying. "After we defended Cerberus it was top priority to rebuilt Omega. By the way, do you still have the chess board from this Cerberus Scumbag I choked here?" Aria asked.  
Meanwhile the batarian who owned the shop where he was standing was involved in a very heated dispute with a turian and a Krogan about the quality of his products.  
"What do you think, human?" the Krogan barked.  
"What?" Jonny asked surprised. He didn't expect to get involved in this dispute.  
"Fucking humans." the Batarian mumbled. The Turian now switched insulting the Batarian for selling low quality products for high prizes to insult Jonny because for being a human. Most of the words he spit out the translator couldn't understand.  
"I've asked you a question, human." the Krogan barked again.  
"Look pal, I don't …" Jonny tried to say but was interrupted by the Turian.  
"He asked you a question! Answer!" He was obviously drunk.  
"And what was the fucking question? Jonny retorted back.  
"What's going on there?" asked a suspicious and at the same time amused sounding Miranda over radio. Jonny was getting annoyed.  
"He asked you if - " the Batarian started.  
"Look, I don't even want to know what you fucking retard wanted to ask so shut the fuck up!" Jonny said and walked away. He heard the Krogan laughing.  
"Some stupid residents wanted to involve me into a dispute about the quality of some weapon mods." he said.  
He was angry that he was interrupted. He tried to listen to the conversation between Shepard and Aria again. "… here? I don't – "  
Suddenly the entrance of the Afterlife exploded in a big fireball.  
"What is happening?" Ashley asked over radio.  
"An explosion at the entrance of the Afterlife." he heard Aliana saying.  
He ran to the entrance and drew his weapon. All over the square he could hear wounded screaming for help and people crying. When he stepped through the destroyed door he saw several people clad in dark grey armor heading to the center of the Afterlife. One of them noticed him and started shooting at him. Two others joined. Jonny dived into cover and threw a grenade at them. After the explosion he stood up with his weapon ready to shoot at any survivors but found none. He looked at the armor of the dead enemies trying to find any emblems or something like that. A second later Jack was standing next to him.  
"Watcha doing?" she asked him.  
"Trying to find something that indicates to whom they belong."  
"Fuck that. Let's kill them." she said and busted the door before them with a biotic blast.  
He shrugged with his shoulders and entered the center of the Afterlife only to see more of the mysterious attackers firing upon the lounge of Aria where Shepard, Garrus, James and Aria were ducking behind improvised cover. Jack glowed blue when she threw a warp at one of the attackers who was bashed against the wall next to him. Six of the attackers now turned around to face the new threat. Jonny shoot one of them in the head but had to dive into cover quickly when they started to return the fire.  
"Try to distract them somehow!" he shouted to Jack.  
"How?"  
"Just do it!"  
With her biotics she pulled a couch up into the air and threw it against the enemies. They quickly changed their positions to not get hit by the flying couch. The second they didn't shoot at Jonny was all he needed. He sprinted to the attacker standing nearest to him and grabbed his head with his right hand. He then tossed him into one of the other attackers. They both hit the ground so hard Jonny could hear their necks brake.  
Together with the four who were still shooting at Aria's lounge there were seven attackers remaining. James threw a grenade down from the lounge that killed two of them. Another was killed by a concussive shot from Shepard.  
"Four to go!" shouted Jack over the noise of the battle sounding very entertained.  
She pulled two of the attackers in the air which were quickly shot by combined fire of them. Aria then jumped down from her lounge and charged at the two remaining attackers.  
"GET! OUT! OF! MY! AFTERLIFE!" she screamed.  
One of the attackers was thrown against one of the poles where normally some Asari would dance.  
"WHY DID YOU ATTACK MY AFTERLIFE?" she screamed at the last attacker.  
He couldn't answer her because in her rage she choked him to death.

A second before the explosion Aliana saw a person quickly running away from the Afterlife.

 _Why is he running?_

When the entrance to the Afterlife exploded she knew why. She quickly followed him through the screaming crowd of civilians. He had a clear projection and she was slowed down by the panicked crowd but with her augmented legs she was faster than any normal human could be.

"Stop!" she shouted at him.

He only ran quicker then he heard her and turned his head to see her. He ran past several market stalls and threw down some crates to slow her down but she simply jumped over them. Suddenly he turned right and ran into a building with an open door. She followed him and suddenly was in a large hall. There were about three dozen Batarians standing listening to another Batarian who was speaking about that the end was nigh or something. He looked like some sort of a prophet standing there in front of the other Batarians but Aliana didn't care. She just wanted to catch this person who was starting running away a second before the entrance to the Afterlife exploded and find out why he did that.  
Some of the Batarians tried to stop her but she tossed them aside. When she left the building she saw that the person she was following stood in a dead end hectically looking after a way to escape. But there was none. Aliana slowed down a bit and smiled.

 _No way that bastard can escape now._

"Hey!" she shouted at him. "You can't run away anymore!"  
He reached after his pistol. But instead of shooting at her he pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger.  
"Fuck!" Aliana shouted.

"Who are these guys?" Jonny asked.  
"No idea." Shepard answered. "But thanks for the help. It was close."  
"The king of the boy scouts admits that he needed help. That's new!" Jack chuckled.  
"These guys are not just some hired mercenaries. They are too well equipped and fought like a Special Forces unit." Garrus said.  
"Cerberus?" Jonny suggested.  
"Could be. But how did they know we were here?" James said.  
When some of the 'police' of Omega arrived Aria yelled at them and accused them for letting this happening. After she was done with it she walked to the others who were still discussing who these attackers could be.  
"I guess you still don't know who these fuckers were?" she asked them.  
"Nope." Jack answered.  
"I don't mind who the fuck they are but they broke the first and only rule on Omega. I want to see them dead. So if you have any hint on who these guys are, tell me!"

 **So, I made a few changes as you should have discovered. At first I tried to make the text more readable. Thx to Drewman784. I changed the date indication as well because I noticed I did them in the way you do them in Germany. Doesn't really fit if the story is in English.  
Until next time **


	4. The Rubble

**03/14/2187, 23:39, SSV Normandy**

Although the Normandy was a military ship its accommodations were no worse than the accommodations of the most civilian ships. When Cerberus constructed the SSV Normandy SR-2 it was important that the Crew could relax between the missions to maintain their performance in combat. While it was obviously that the Normandy was a military ship again when the Alliance refitted it, its accommodations mostly were still civilian-grade.  
After they finished their mission on Omega Jonny and Aliana first wanted to go to their own ship but they were invited to join the others on the Normandy and so they did. While Liara and EDI were trying to find out more about those mysterious attackers the rest quickly gathered in Port Observation. After Miranda and Mordin left to get some sleep the others continued telling stories about what they've experienced so far. Because the storytelling also contained some amounts of alcohol it wasn't sure if all the stories were entirely true or just made up. Either way, it was funny.  
"Please, I fought off a dozen angry Batarians on Omega single handedly. Used one of 'em as a landing pad off a three story jump." James said.  
"Oh come on, I heard that one before. You're telling nothing knew, Vega." Garrus chuckled.  
Suddenly they heard EDIs Voice over the intercom: "Admiral, we have something you might be interested in."  
Shepard still had to get used to get called Admiral instead of Commander. Not sure if it was a good idea with the alcohol they drunk to talk about serious things he expected to talk about he headed to Liaras office. He was followed only by Jonny, Aliana and Jack. Tali had fallen asleep some time ago and James decided it was his duty to watch over the Lady of the Admiral. Garrus was also staying behind in the Port Observation because someone had to keep James awake as he told them. Shepard wasn't sure who should keep Garrus awake. Arriving at Liaras office he noticed that Jack wasn't with them anymore.  
When they entered the office he saw that Liara had noticed that he was a bit drunk. She turned to Jonny and Aliana and told them that they didn't found any evidence of who the attackers might be but they had hacked into the black box of the shuttle the attackers arrived at Omega. They had traced its flight path and found out that the shuttle started at the Rubble.  
The Rubble was a giant hollowed out asteroid which was inhabited by humans who refused to live in the Alliance. Probably hollowed out by the Protheans refugees fleeing before the Reaper had discovered it. During the war more and more refugees who didn't think that the Alliance could protect them fled to the Rubble. When the Reaper were defeated the Rubble became a place for humans not agreeing with the Alliance. Though nobody knows how many people exactly live on the Rubble it is estimated that its population is about 50,000 people. Although the Rubble was a thorn in the side of the Alliance they didn't take any actions against it. The people living on the Rubble said they didn't because they were too weak to attack them and other people believed that if the Alliance would attack the Rubble many other colonies would leave the Alliance and become independent.  
While Shepard listened – or tried to – he noticed that he couldn't really understand the half of it. Suddenly everything around him began to shake and he collapsed on the ground.  
Aliana just shrugged with her shoulders while Jonny lifted Shepard up.  
"Thanks for the information, Doc. You did a good job. But I think the time for a mission briefing isn't right now." Aliana said.  
"Considering the physical condition of the Admiral you may be right." EDI said.  
"I have one question." Liara said as Jonny started to walk out of her office carrying Shepard followed by Aliana. Then they heard Liara speaking they stopped and turned around.  
"What is it?"  
"You've spend your time with the others at the Port Observation. Why are you not drunk like them if you don't mind I'm asking?" Liara asked them.  
"Well, everybody has some secrets." Jonny said smirking as they walked out of the cabin.  
When they stood before the elevator Aliana asked: "Why don't we place him not in his cabin but somewhere else on the ship? Maybe in the crew quarters. Might be fun."  
"Sure, but he's a freakin' Admiral. Could prevent the fun." Jonny answered.  
"You're probably right. Damn. Could've been fun."  
"A shame he's an Admiral."  
"Do you think he'll remember who carried him?"  
"Probably not."

 **03/15/2187, 08:03, SSV Normandy**

With all of them sober again Liara told them again what she and EDI found out the night before. It was obvious that the next step was to infiltrate the Rubble to gain more information about the attackers. The Rubble wasn't a friend to the Alliance so they couldn't just land their and ask around. They had to take a more subtle approach.  
"So what're you suggesting, Shepard?" Ashley asked.  
"We need one or two persons going in there and gain the trust of the governor. They then have to find out more about Cerberus." Shepard instructed them.  
"Good plan." Aliana said. "But I think none of you can do this job. The crew of the Normandy is the stuff of I don't know how much legends. They'll immediately notice who you really are."  
"So what are you suggesting?" Miranda wanted to know.  
"I'm suggesting that we –" she pointed at her and Jonny "- are infiltrating them. We're just not as known as you are."  
"That's a good idea." Shepard said.  
"The only question remaining is: How do you gain the trust of the governor?" Liara asked.  
"The enemy of you enemy is your friend. I suggest a present will make the governor happy." Mordin suggested.  
"What kind of a present?" Garrus asked.  
"They don't like the Alliance. So what will they like more than probably the most famous Alliance member?" Mordin said while looking at Shepard.  
"You sure that this is necessary?" Tali asked obviously worried about the plan.   
Shepard sighed. "I don't like it but it's obviously the most effective way to gain their trust."  
"You shouldn't go alone. It would be safer if you're accompanied by someone. Besides, more than one prisoner is better than just one." Miranda suggested.  
"That is true. The plan is settled. Jonny and Aliana will gain their trust through giving me and two others as prisoners to the governor. Later they will free us to distract them. In the turmoil they will try to find out more about the attackers."

 **03/19/2187, 15:47, The Rubble**

"Unidentified space vessel, identify yourself and tell your reason of your approach. If you don't answer in the next 20 seconds you will be shot."  
"This is the Avalanche and we have something your governor might want to have."  
"And what is it that you have?"  
"We rather talk to the governor about this. If the Alliance knows about this we might be in a bit of trouble."  
"Pissed of the Alliance? Welcome to the Rubble. Approach to Docking Bay B7."  
"That went well." said Aliana. "I hope our fake identities still work."  
"They will. Now get our prisoners ready." Jonny said with a smile on his face.  
Aliana approached the back of the ship where Shepard, James and Liara were sitting.  
"Why do you have holding cells on this ship?" James asked.  
"I'm just glad we didn't had to spend our time during the flight in those." Liara said while looking at the three small holding cells at the back of the ship. Each one of them had just barely enough place for a human sized person. They all could be ejected from the ship into the void if it was necessary.  
"Well, it proved being useful to have some space to hold some prisoners when we kidnapped some scientist which worked for Cerberus." Aliana answered as she put them handcuffs on. They weren't really happy about the fact that they had to play prisoners in this mission but it was necessary.

There were 10 people waiting at Docking Bay B7. One of them was the self-elected governor of the Rubble, Keith Otho. He was accompanied by his asari bodyguard Naryrhin Edala and eight guardsmen. They were waiting for a ship that had some interesting cargo. At least he was told so. The strange thing was that the captain of the ship only wanted to talk to him what he transported and to no one else. If it wasn't worth his time he would arrest him, he thought.  
The ship flew through the blue shimmering shields which protected the hangar from the radiation in the space and kept a breathable atmosphere in the docking bay. It looked like one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. After the ship landed a door opened on the left side of the ship and a small staircase extended. First a man clad in light armor walked out followed by three other people. The three people were tied up with handcuffs and each one of them had a bag put over their head so they couldn't see anything. Behind them a woman walked out of the ship. Just like the one who walked out of the ship first she was clad in light armor and was armed with a rifle in her hand and a pistol attached to a magnetic strip at her right leg. They moved with a mix of elegance and effectiveness and Naryrhin Edala immediately put her hand against her pistol which was hidden under her clothing. Many said to her that she was paranoid but it saved the life of her and her client many times. She had a strange feeling about the two newcomers.  
What nobody has seen was that another person left the ship. She couldn't be seen because she was invisible to human eyes and even many high-tech scanners. She quickly left the docking bay unseen.  
"And who are you?" Otho asked the two persons who imprisoned the three other people.  
"Ryan Jones." the man said with a deep voice.  
"Phoebe Combe." the woman who had left the ship at last said.  
"You said that you have something that I might want to have?" Otho asked the two.  
"Well, we heard that you guys here aren't the biggest friends of the Alliance so these people hear might interest you." Jonny answered and walked to their prisoners and removed the bags so their faces could be seen. The people gasped when they saw who the prisoners were.  
"Is this … Shepard?" Keith Otho asked with wide eyes.  
"Yep. And the other two are Lieutenant James Vega and Liara T'Soni. Caught them on Illium." Jonny said with an evil looking smile at his face.  
"How can I know that this is the real Shepard?" a suspicious sounding Otho asked.  
"I assure you, this is the right one. If you don't believe me – what I can totally understand – just do a DNA test."  
One of the guardsmen walked over to Shepard and put his hand on a small scanner.  
"He's right, Sir. This is Shepard." the guardsman said after a few seconds.  
"The great Shepard, the hero of the Alliance, is a prisoner now. I love it. What do you want for them?" a very happy Keith Otho asked them.  
"Well, for obvious reasons the Alliance doesn't like us. We just want to stay here and buy an Apartment. I hope these people are a sufficient payment." Aliana answered.  
"Of course that is sufficient!" Otho laughed. "Welcome to the Rubble!"  
He then ordered five of the guardsmen to take the three prisoners to the cells.  
"Can I invite you two to a dinner tonight to celebrate the capturing of Shepard? I'm very interested to hear more about you."  
"Sure. Thanks for the invite." Aliana said.

When they arrived at their apartment they first checked it after bugging devices. They found one and disabled it.  
"You can come out now, Kasumi." Aliana said.  
"How did you know that I was here?" she asked after getting visible again.  
"You're not so hard to find as you may think." Jonny said grinning. "Anyway, did you found out the position of the cells?"  
"Yes. Shep and the others are watched by several guards. I don't think I can get them out without drawing attention of every guard on this asteroid."  
"Then we need to distract them somehow. Any ideas?" Jonny asked.  
"We could try to hack their security mechs. Should make enough trouble so we can get the others out and get the data we need." Aliana suggested.  
"Good idea. But we also need to eliminate the governor. Without their leader they'll be disorganized so we can get off this station more easily." Kasumi said while looking at the large amount of weapons stored in the two bags lying on one of the beds.  
"The governor invited us to a dinner so it won't be hard to get to him. We should find out more about the attackers when we're in his office as well." Aliana suggested.  
"Then the plan is set." Jonny said.

Two heavily armed persons didn't really draw little attention but on their way nobody asked them what they were doing. Probably they looked like too much trouble for most of the people on the Rubble.  
"Hey! This is a –" one of the guards said when Jonny and Aliana entered the room which led to the server controlling the security mechs. Before he could finish his sentence he was shot in the head by a silenced gun. The other guardsmen were too slow to activate the alarm before they were killed. Two more of them were shot by Aliana and Jonny killed the last with his monomolecular blade.  
Cerberus armed its Phantoms with monomolecular blades due to the fact that they could cut through basically everything. Over time Jonny and Aliana often used them on their missions as close quarter combat weapons and became very attached to them.  
He wiped away the blood from his blade and then went to the sever room while Aliana tried to hide the corpses. He stopped at the next best console and inserted a small chip. On the chip was a V.I. which took over the control of the security mechs.  
"The mechs are on our side now, Kasumi. They should make enough trouble so you can free Shepard and the others." he radioed.

"Got it." Kasumi said.  
A few seconds later she heard the sounds of a battle. After the gunfire stopped she dropped herself from the ventilation shaft. When she got to the cells where Shepard and the others were hold she saw several destroyed security mechs and six dead guardsmen. Two obviously shocked guardsmen were standing before the cells and one wounded leaned against the wall.  
They couldn't see her because she was still invisible. She got behind one of the guards and cut his throat with a knife. He was dead before he fell on the ground. Before the other guard could react she turned visible and shot him in the head.  
"Please …" the wounded guard begged while blood dropped out of his mouth.  
She shot him and searched for a console to open the cells. When she found the button to open the right cell Shepard, James and Liara walked out of their cell.  
"About time." James said.  
"No 'Thank you for freeing us, Kasumi'?" Kasumi asked with a smile on her face.  
"Later." Shepard said. "Now let's get the hell out of here."  
"I strongly agree with Shepard." Liara said while taking the submachine gun of a dead guard.  
"Jonny and Aliana are on their way to get the data and kill the governor to disorganize the guards even more. I've also opened all other cells to start a riot. Let's go to our apartment so you can equip yourself. The shortest way is through the ventilation shaft." Kasumi told them while already climbing up to the ventilation shaft.  
"Glad Tali isn't here. She wouldn't go through the ventilation shafts again." Shepard said with a smile on his face and followed Kasumi.

Keith Otho had looked forward to the dinner with the two newcomers who brought him this wonderful present but his mood fell drastically when he heard what was happening.  
All over the asteroid security mechs were going mad and attacking guardsmen and somehow all the prisoners were released and were rioting in the station.  
The four guardsmen and Naryrhin Edala made ready to defend everything what was coming through the door while Otho tried to contact units of the guardsmen and order them to rescue their governor but he couldn't reach anyone. Whoever was responsible for this attack had probably deactivated the comm network.  
Suddenly the door exploded and two of the guards were immediately killed. Two people walked into the room. They both were armed with a heavy pistol and a blade and were clad into the same armor the two newcomers wore when they arrived.  
The two remaining guards were quickly killed by the two attackers. He couldn't see who they were because they wore helmets that hid their faces but he was sure that the mysterious attackers were the two newcomers.  
"I knew you two didn't come here to just rest." Naryrhin said and fired her pistol at one of the attackers.  
Most people would be dead right now but the two attackers were standing like nothing had happened. She then realized that one of them had just shot her bullets out of the air.  
 _What the …_ she wondered when one of them leaped at her and tried to hit her with his sword.  
If she wasn't an Asari Huntress for the last 300 years she would be dead right now but her reflexes made her quickly sidestep the attack. She drew her combat knife and tried to stab her opponent but he quickly deflected the attack with his sword. He then tried to shoot her but before he could pull the trigger she hit his arm so he missed her barely. She tried again to hit him with her knife but he dodged and did a backflip to avoid getting hit by her Roundhouse kick. He then shot at her but she evaded with a cartwheel.  
To her luck, Keith Otho was a collector of swords so she turned quickly around and reached after a katana hanging at the wall behind her and changed her combat knife against it to gain more range. When she turned around she saw that her opponent was just standing there ready to fight and signing her to attack him. Pushed by her biotics she leaped at him with incredible speed and tried to hit his left leg with the katana. He deflected the blow and tried to counterattack and swung his blade at her head but she dodged and tried to shoot him in his face but before she could pull the trigger he cut right through the barrel of her gun so she couldn't use it anymore. Before she realized it he did a Roundhouse kick against her head and she only survived it due to her barriers. Due to the incredible strength of his kick she was thrown against the wall behind her. He leaped at her to kill her with his blade but she managed to dodge the blow and attacked him again now only armed with her katana.  
Aliana saw that Jonny was engaging the Asari so she followed the governor who sprinted away through a door into another room. She followed him into the room and suddenly felt a pistol pressed against her head.  
"Don't move, bitch." Otho said breathing heavily.  
Before he could react she did a backflip and kicked the gun out of his hand. She put her blade against his throat and pressed it a little against the throat so a small stream of blood flowed out of the wound. It was no life threatening wound but it showed who had the power.  
"Where can I see which ships entered and left the Rubble?" she asked Otho with a dangerous sounding voice.  
"You … you can s-s-see that at my personal computer in my office." he said very afraid of the woman threatening his life and signed at the desk behind him.  
"What's the code?" Aliana wanted to know.  
"1138." he said.  
"Put it in." she demanded and removed the blade from his throat.  
He walked over to his computer and started it. A few seconds later he put in the code and turned the computer around.  
"H-h-here are the lists of a-an-any ship that entered o-o-or left the Rubble in the p-past  
th-three months." he stuttered looking all the time with a worried look at the gun in Alianas left hand.  
"Thank you." she said with a lovely voice and shot him in the head.

She fought the mysterious attacker for several minutes now. None of them had a clear advantage over the other. While her opponent still had his pistol she had picked up her combat knife again so she now wielded two weapons. During their fight she heard a gunshot. The governor was probably dead by now but she didn't retreat.  
She had failed at protecting the governor and had no reason to stay there anymore but she was in some kind of a blood rage and just wanted to kill her opponent who had made her fail at her job for the first time in her long life.  
She again tried to hit the attacker with her knife while distracting him with her katana but like each time she tried it before he dodged her attack with the knife. He counterattacked with his sword but she parried the blow with her katana and tried to kick against his head but he blocked her attack with his left arm.  
Suddenly she heard the door to her left open and risked a look. The other attacker, a female one as she could saw, was now entering the room.  
The part of a second she looked at her left was all that Jonny needed. Although he didn't want to commit it, his opponent was as good as he was. The fight could go several hours and no one would have won but he needed to end the fight quickly because at some time guards would probably come to look what happened to their governor and then they would be in trouble.  
When the Asari he was fighting against looked at her left to see Aliana entering the room he used her distraction and put his gun against her head.  
"Checkmate." he said and pulled the trigger.

"You got what we were here for?" Shepard asked Jonny and Aliana when they met in  
Docking Bay B7.  
After Kasumi had freed Shepard, James and Liara they went back to the apartment and equipped themselves. The guardsmen were busy defending themselves against the security mechs and the released prisoners were mostly unarmed so it was not hard to get back to their ship.  
"Aye." Jonny answered.  
"Then let's leave this place."  
When they flew out of the Rubble they saw that the entire Rubble Security Fleet waited for them ready to engage. The Avalanche was fast and agile but it didn't stand any chances against two cruisers and three small frigates. Several fighters were engaging them already and Jonny did his best to dodge any attacks but the three frigates were already closing in.  
"Fuck!" Jonny cursed. "We're not gonna last long against these guys!"  
"Normandy, we could use your help right now." Shepard spoke into his comm link.  
Suddenly the Normandy jumped into the system just a few kilometers away from the battle. A blue lance cut through the space and hit one of the cruisers. The cruisers armor and shields couldn't withstand the power of the Thanix Cannon and was shred into pieces before the crew could even react.  
"Joker here. Need any assistance?" Jokers voice came through the speakers. The smile on his face could basically be heard.  
"Good to hear that voice." Liara said in relief.  
"Always glad to help." Joker said.  
While the Avalanche flew into the nearby asteroid field to shake off the fighters the remaining cruiser and the three frigates engaged the Normandy. The remaining Rubble Security Fleet may have outgunned the Normandy but they surely didn't outmaneuver it.  
Before the remaining cruiser could turn around to use its Mass Accelerator against the Normandy it was hit by another shot of the Thanix Cannon and exploded.  
Five of the eight fighters pursuing the Avalanche decided that the frigate that had already destroyed two cruisers was the bigger threat and turned to face the new enemy.  
One of the remaining three fighters pursuing the Avalanche couldn't dodge the asteroids and slammed into one of them. Another fighter was shot by the GARDIAN Laser of the Avalanche but the last of them managed to hit the Avalanche and cut through its shields.  
In the cockpit several red warning lights turned on and they all felt the explosion.  
"Nothing critical!" shouted Jonny after he checked the displays to calm the others.  
"Deploying repair drones!" Aliana said from the copilot seat while entering something hectically on her console.  
"I hate being stuck in a ship that has been shot." grumbled James from behind.  
"This happens to you often?" Liara asked in disbelief.  
"Way too often."

"The Normandy wasn't built for this kind of maneuvers, Jeff." EDI said with her typical calm voice.  
"I know." Joker just answered. The three frigates attacking them were a bit annoying.  
"Is the Thanix Cannon fully loaded EDI?" he asked.  
"Yes. It's charged at 300%. I must warn you however, this overload drastically reduces the lifespan of the Thanix Cannon.  
"I know, EDI." he said sounding a bit annoyed. "Hold tight, guys." He said over the intercom to the crew of the Normandy.  
He activated the side thrusters so the Normandy turned around at 180 degrees and now faced the three frigates.  
Down at the shuttle bay Cortez swore to kill Joker the next time he saw him.  
With the front of the Normandy now facing the three frigates he could fire the Thanix cannon at them. Normally it could only shoot all five seconds but with the capacitors overloaded he could quickly get three shots off instead of one. He activated the Thanix cannon and in less than two seconds later the three frigates that had pursued them were only scrap floating in space.

 **Published this chapter later than I actually wanted but I have a lot of stuff to do at the moment so I don't know if the next chapter will be released next Monday.  
Until next time**


	5. Noveria Pt1

**03/20/2187**

"Is the project making progress, Mr. Kensington?"

"It is, Sir."  
"Very good. When will it be fit for action?"  
"We need some time to work out the exact technical structure. Maybe one or two weeks. In some ways the design is similar to ours but at the same time it is … somewhat ancient. The most time obviously will be needed to construct the devices. If we go after the plan a testing device will be finished in about a month. Maybe less. The construction of the larger devices will obviously need much more time."  
"That is obvious. But at the time we'll construct them we'll have much more resources at our disposal."  
"There is … another matter I wanted to discuss, Sir."  
"What is it?"  
"As I told you, we found an ancient A.I. which helped us a lot speeding up the progress. The thing is, this A.I. believes that one member of our team is … the descendant of the family that once ruled Humanity."  
"That is … interesting. Are there any consequences?"  
"Not really, Sir. The specific member of our team made it more than clear that she doesn't have any intentions ruling humanity." he said with a little smile. "But the A.I. only works for here. It refuses to work for the others. We tried several times to solve that problem but we couldn't. That is why Rebecca Dunn – next to me – leads the mission."  
"Are there any problems involved in this change of leadership?"  
"No, she behaves very professional and there aren't any complications at the moment."  
"Very good. Keep on. I shall await your next report in a week."

 **03/21/2187**

"So do we know more about the attackers?" Shepard asked.  
They were all standing in the War Room eager to hear about the information Liara and EDI had.  
"We do. The Shuttle came from Noveria." EDI said. "We traced the flightpath of the shuttle down to an area located in the southern parts of Noveria. No companies are working there due to the rather harsh environmental conditions in comparison to the other parts of the planet."  
"Why did we never know of this base?" Ashley asked.  
"No Companies built anything in this region so no one is interested in this region. Cerberus could also have some allies in these companies so they prevent others from investigating this area." Liara answered.  
"Do we have any satellites available who could examine this area?" Aliana asked.  
"We tried that already but there is some sort of jammer so we can't get any exact pictures of the area." Liara said.  
"So there is definitely something that we aren't supposed to see and the chance that Cerberus has to do something with it is high. We have to know what is there but I don't like the idea of going in completely without knowing what is expecting us." James said.  
"Scout drones? No. Would probably be detected and shot down. Would also warn them." Mordin thought loud.  
"I don't like it but I don't see another way than going in there blind." Shepard said not sounding happy about the plan.  
"We need support. We can't go in there alone if we don't know what's expecting us." Garrus said.  
"I could order some troops to help us but they would be detected and the base would be alarmed." Shepard suggested.  
"But they can't detect the Normandy. The Normandy could drop us and a small number of Marines. Reinforcement comes when we're in the base." Jonny suggested.  
"They couldn't detect the Normandy but they can detect the Kodiaks. Besides we only have two of them. I don't think they could transport enough men to assault the base." James said.  
"I didn't say anything about the Kodiaks. We jump out of the Normandy." Jonny said.  
"They would probably shoot us down while we're hanging on the parachutes." Ashley argued.  
"Who said anything about parachutes?" Jonny asked with a grin on his face.

 **03/24/2187**

She hated Tuchanka. She hated everything about it: The temperature, the desert covering basically the whole planet, the remnants of the once proud Krogan race which destroyed itself two times. First when they bombed themselves with nuclear weapons and a second time when they rebelled against the council.  
She hated the Krogans. She hated to work together with them but she knew it wouldn't be for long. If her plan would succeed she would never have to see a Krogan again. Or any kind of alien.  
She stood on a big balcony with a great view on a valley full of military looking buildings. Workers were entrenching gun emplacements and large vehicles were setting up artillery and anti-air guns.  
On the left she could see the giant anti-spaceship cannon. During the Reaper War Shepard defeated the Cerberus troops positioned there and after the war the Council gave the installation to the Krogans. Due to their alliance with Cerberus the installation now served as one of the many defenses built in the last two months.  
Oksana Petrovsky walked back into the room behind her and activated the comm link.  
"Captain Swanzy, how is the construction of the defenses going on?" she asked the officer who was responsible for the construction of the defenses.  
"The ground defenses are nearly completed. The mortars aren't completely deployed but they should be ready no later than ready. The anti-spaceship gun is ready and the improvements are completely finished. There is a problem with the anti-air guns though. We weren't able to set them up at the planned positions because our engineers have problems with the ground; the guns would probably sink in." Swanzy answered obviously not happy about the last part of his report.  
"That is not acceptable and I hope you know that Commander." Petrovsky said with an icy voice. "It is important that everything works according to the plan."  
"Yes ma'am. We expect that a solution is found in the next three days."  
"In two days, not three."

On the way to the still not completed anti-air batteries Captain Edward Swanzy passed several workers. Like the Cerberus Troopers and Centurions they all there indoctrinated. Since Cerberus started building their own indoctrination devices all the simple workers and soldiers were 'improved'. Swanzy didn't like the idea of using Reapertech. He never trusted anything that was invented or built by non-humans.

When he arrived at the place of one of the anti-air batteries he saw his old friend Jonah Alfrey. He and Alfrey joined Cerberus together back in 2179.  
"Alfrey!" he called his friend. He always used the surname of his friend because he hated his first name.  
"How's the situation here?" he asked his old friend.  
Alfrey looked up from a console and greeted his friend with a handshake.  
"We finally managed to finish this battery but now we've got some problems calibrating it. The other batteries still aren't finished."  
"How long do you think it will take?"  
"Three or four days maybe." Alfrey said and scratched his beard.  
"The general gave you two." Swanzy said and watched how his friend got angry.  
"Two days? Is she crazy? How are we supposed to do this?" he asked furiously.  
"I don't know. But we better stick to the plan."

 **03/27/2187**

"And who exactly had this brilliant idea?" one of the Marines shouted. The Shuttle Bay of the Normandy was crowded with people checking on their armor and weapons. Besides Shepard, Ashley, Tali, James, Garrus, Liara, Miranda, Jonny and Aliana 20 Marines with N5 qualification or higher were standing in the Shuttle Bay.  
"I think I better not say that it was my idea." Jonny said with a smile to Aliana when she checked his gear.  
"Better not." she laughed.  
"Alright, reaching drop zone in 30 seconds." Jokers' voice came out of the intercom. The room was now fully lighted in red. All conversations were stopped and everyone prepared himself mentally for the jump.  
They didn't use parachutes but a combination of a wingsuit combined with small maneuver thrusters to adjust the flight path if necessary and to slow down before the landing. It was a very effective tactic but also very difficult. It was no part of the standard training for an Alliance Marine but it every candidate of the N-School had to train it.  
The door of the Shuttle Bay opened slowly and enabled a view of Noveria. It was snowing heavily and they could feel the cold before the temperature regulators in their armor adjusted the internal temperature.  
On the right sight of the door a lamp changed its color from red to yellow. Everyone now looked tense at the lamp.  
When it changed the color from yellow to green the first line of the soldiers ran forwards followed by the second line and so on.

Jonny ran down the ramp and instantly he was in free fall. He could see barely anything with the storm going on but the sensors in his helmet gave him all the information he needed. The positions of his comrades were marked blue on his HUD and he could see that all were falling in formation. Every few seconds he had to use his maneuver thrusters to adjust his position so the wind couldn't just blow him away.

His sensors showed him that he was about 1000 meters above the ground so he started to really work with his wingsuit for the first time. Since now they all had been just in free fall but they didn't want to crash on the ground like a rock so he started to slow his fall with the wingsuit. About 100 meters above the surface he would use his thrusters to slow down his fall as well.  
"Everything alright?" Aliana asked him over comm.  
"Never been better. There's nothing better than falling towards an enemy's base within a big fucking blizzard."  
"When was the last time we did this?" she asked him casually, as if they would be just walking around in a park or something.  
"Menae, I think. Back in '82 if I remember correctly."  
"Good thing we're on a private channel. Don't think Garrus would be happy if he knew that."  
"You're probably right." he laughed.  
They instantly cut the chatter when they noticed that they were 100 meters above the ground. With the help of the maneuver thrusters they slowed down their fall. At the height of 10 meters they split off their wingsuits so they wouldn't hinder them in a fight. It would be a hard landing but the thrusters would slow them down enough so it wouldn't be too dangerous.  
The process wasn't perfect because the thrusters would still hinder them a bit in combat but to split of the thrusters as well wasn't the best idea. After they landed Jonny covered Aliana so she could split off the thrusters as well and five seconds later they changed the roles. Around them their comrades were landing as well.  
Their landing operation didn't go unnoticed though. Soon, Cerberus troopers were running out of the buildings and started firing upon the Alliance forces.  
"Suppression teams, on that building! I don't want to see any Cerberus troopers that moves or fires!" Shepard shouted over comm. The addressed soldiers did as they were told and laid down suppression fire at the Cerberus troops as soon as they had climbed on the roof of a building to get a higher position. The rest of the Alliance forces went quickly into cover and started firing back. Grenades were thrown at the Cerberus troops and explosions followed soon after.  
To his left Jonny could see Liara forming a barrier to protect a group of several Marines from the enemy fire. On his right flank he could see Shepard, Ashley, Garrus and James trying to get behind the Cerberus forces and flank them.  
Suddenly just one meter next to James a mass accelerated bullet exploded on the ground and sent him flying through the air.  
"Atlas!" Jonny shouted and started firing at the approaching war machine.  
One of the Marines took a ML-77 Missile Launcher from his back and fired a rocket at the Atlas but the shot was deflected by the shields of the Atlas. The pilot noticed the Marine as the biggest threat to him and shot back. He hit and from the Marine was nothing left.  
"Cover me!" Jonny shouted to one of the suppression teams and ran towards the Atlas.  
"What the …" one of the Marines said in unbelieve.  
"Just do it!"  
He wasn't sure if it would work but it was a plan at least. The suppression team started firing at the Atlas and got his full attention so the pilot didn't notice Jonny running towards him. For the beginning at least. When he noticed him it was too late.

He tried to fire at the crazy Marine running towards him but he was to close and he couldn't turn his gun fast enough.  
"What the …" he said in unbelieve when the Marine jumped upwards and suddenly was in front of the cockpit, holding on to the Atlas with his left hand. With his right hand he drew something from behind his back. A second later he held a sword in his right hand and stabbed it through the bulletproof glass of the cockpit. The las thing the Cerberus pilot saw was that the sword didn't just pierced through the window like a knife through hot butter but also through him.

Jonny pulled his sword out of the dead pilot and threw the body out of the cockpit. He then entered the Atlas and sent a message to all allied forces to not attack him. He didn't want to die by friendly fire.  
He quickly looked over the controls and saw that the basic operating system Cerberus used when he worked for them still was used. In addition, the controls were so easy a child could handle it.  
Taken by surprise to get attacked by their 'own' vehicle and now completely outgunned the remaining Cerberus troops were quickly defeated. The most of them were dead and the remaining quickly retreated back into one of the buildings.  
Three Marines were dead and two were injured but with the help of Medigel they soon were back in action.  
"Good job everyone." Shepard said after the battle ended. "But this isn't over. We divide into four groups. One for each building and the forth covers the landing zone. The objectives are the recovering of any data we find, the elimination of the remaining Cerberus troops and the deactivation of the defense turrets. Each one of you" he pointed at Jonny, Aliana and Miranda, "Will accompany one of the teams going into the buildings. We've got no better Cerberus experts than you so you should be able to help the teams."

After they divided into the four smaller teams the three assault teams entered the buildings. Team Alpha consisted of Jonny, Shepard, Tali and four Marines, Team Beta consisted of Aliana, James and Liara and four Marines and Team Charlie comprised Miranda, Ashley, Garrus and four Marines. The remaining five Marines were guarding the landing zone.

"So what do you think how many Cerberus troops are still here?" Jonny asked Shepard when they walked through the building, weapons ready.  
"Don't know. Got anything out of the cameras?" he asked Tali.  
"No. Tried to hack them but I can't break through their security. Had to use –"  
"Did you hear that?" one of the Marines asked suddenly.  
"What?" Shepard asked?"  
"That!" the Marine said and pointed at several Husks walking towards them.  
"Open fire!" Shepard shouted! "All teams: We've confirmed the presence of Husks! I repeat: Husks!" he warned the other teams over comm when Alpha team started firing at the Husks. They died quickly but more of them came towards them.

"Damn Cerberus and their Reaper tech!" Aliana said after she heard Shepard's message over the comm.  
"You're jealous?" James asked when he killed the last of the five Cerberus troopers in front of them. They had killed one of the Marines but were defeated quickly after that.  
"No, Husks are just cannon fodder." she said and laughed. Suddenly she heard a scream she wished to hear never again.  
"By the goddess." Liara whispered shocked from the creature walking towards them.  
"Now that's more than just cannon fodder." James said and fired at the approaching enemy but the Banshee just put up a barrier that deflected the shots. It then threw a warp at two Marines standing too close together and killed both of them.  
"Open fire!" Aliana shouted and threw a grenade at the Banshee that did no visible damage.  
The Banshee threw a second warp at them but Liara deflected it and countered with a singularity that merely slowed it down. However, due to the Banshee's inability to defend herself her barrier took a serious beating from the weapons of the team.  
The fight went on for a few minutes and the Banshee was finally dead but so were the Marines and Liara was completely exhausted after the dual with the banshee. She was a powerful biotic, even for an Asari, but the implants of a Banshee strengthened its power immensely.

Jonny stood in the middle of dead husks with blood dripping of his sword and his armor. Two Marines of his team were dead and they all were injured, but nothing life threatening and the Medigel was already healing their wounds.  
"I hope Cerberus doesn't have more unpleasant surprises." Shepard said breathing heavily. "Let's find the headquarters of this complex to finish our job."

"Looks like the other teams got into more trouble than us." Garrus said jokingly.  
They went through the third building of the Cerberus Base for almost ten minutes and didn't find anything – no enemies, no headquarters where they could deactivate the defense turrets or recover any data. After they walked around a corner they saw a door.  
"The door to the headquarters?" one of the Marines asked.  
"Could be. Let's find it out." Ashley said and opened the door from a panel next to it.  
They stepped through the door and stood in a completely dark room. They could not tell how big the room was or what was in it, they couldn't see anything. Even the light from the corridor they came from didn't help because the door closed automatically after they entered the room.  
Before Ashley could say something several lights on the ceiling went on and they saw how big the room was. And what was in the room, too. The room easily was about 50 meters wide and about 20 meters in length.  
They stood on a small platform with stairs leading down to the ground level of the hall. A great number of Husks and several Marauders were standing there.  
"Shit." one of the Marines could say before the fire of the Marauders forced them behind the little cover they got.

"Look like we're under the surface now." Liara said.  
After the fight against the Banshee they walked through the building only to find nothing important except an elevator. They took it without knowing where it would lead and were now standing in a corridor several meters under the surface of Noveria. Their sensors were jammed by some sort of jamming device planted by Cerberus so they couldn't reach any of the other teams.  
"Then let's look where this corridor leads." Aliana suggested.  
They walked through the corridor for about two minutes until they stood before a door and heard sounds that could only come from a battle.  
"Weapons ready!" James commanded before they opened the door.  
They walked through it and were standing in a large hall. Before them a great number of Husks and Marauders were attacking several soldiers on higher ground. They identified them as the group led by Ashley.  
Before they could do anything a door next to them opened. They immediately turned towards the newcomers with their weapons drawn, expecting enemies. Instead the group led by Shepard entered the room.  
"Glad you're not Cerberus." Aliana said and lowered her weapon.  
"I think they didn't notice us yet but that will change soon presumably. So I say we help our friends up there." Shepard said after he took a quick look at the situation.  
They quickly planned their tactic and attacked after about half a minute. While Shepard, Tali, James and the two remaining Marines were laying down covering fire supported by Liara who used her biotics to attack the enemies and to protect her allies Jonny and Aliana were heading into close quarters combat.  
They concentrated at the Marauders so they couldn't suppress the Team led by Ashley. The Marauders were caught by surprise and by the time they reacted to the new threat at their flank the half of them were dead. Forced into cover by the fire of Shepard, James, Tali and the two Marines they couldn't get enough space between them and Jonny and Aliana to effectively use their weapons.

Ashley noticed that the enemy's attack was getting weaker. Fewer Husks were attacking them and the suppression fire of the Marauders decreased as well. She looked down at the ground of the hall and saw several people attacking the Marauders in the flank.  
"We've got reinforcements!" she shouted to encourage the remains of her team.  
Three of the Marines were already dead and Miranda was very exhausted due to the constant barrier she was putting up to protect them from the fire of the Marauders. If the reinforcements hadn't come they wouldn't have survived for long.  
But with the reinforcements they might be able to survive it. If the Marauders were defeated they could concentrate on the Husks which were the real problem.

Jonny and Aliana quickly cut through the Marauders. They were caught by surprise, attacked in the flank while in the same moment attacked in close quarter combat. It wasn't a good time for the former Reaper creatures now controlled by Cerberus. Or maybe it was because their miserable existence as mindless creatures only used for destruction was ended and the Turians they were a time ago were relieved.  
Anyway, Jonny didn't care much about that. The Marauders were just enemies to defeat. So he did the best he could and quickly the transformed Turians were no more.  
Now there were just Husks. A lot of them. It would be stressful to defeat them all.  
The flank of the Husks was ripped apart from the fire of Shepard, James, Tali and the two Marines and Liaras' biotics sent groups of them flying through the air. Jonny and Aliana attacked them in the back, slaying one with each strike from their monomolecular blade the carried in their right hands and delivering headshots with their pistols in their left hand.  
Several minutes later all Husks were dead and silence dominated over room only interrupted by the heavy breathing of the remaining men and women and the hissing sound of Medigel-dispensers. The first one who broke the silence was Ashley when she walked down the stairs followed by the rest of her team.  
"Thanks for the help. I don't think we would have survived for long if you hadn't come to help us. I guess you heard our message?"  
"We didn't. Comm is jammed." Aliana said.  
"Then I think it was a trap set up by Cerberus to kill us."  
"You're right. It was a trap. And the Husks and the Marauders were just a warm up." a voice said. Several Cerberus troops arrived and took positions on the upper level of the hall with their weapons pointed at the remaining survivors.

* * *

 **Hey there  
**

 **As I told you this chapter came a little bit later than I wanted but I had to much to attend to (School, Life and everything else). I should have more time now though. This week might still be a bit stressful but after that I definetely have more time and also some good ideas.**

 **Until next time**


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